Maiko Japanese Matcha Café in Richmond

Food Quality
Atmosphere / Services
Reasonable Priced
Summary

Maiko is a matcha dessert franchise from Japan. They opened their first BC location in Richmond May of 2019. The word Maiko means the apprentice geisha in Western Japan. The word implies feminine vibrant youth and continual progression. Perhaps this is why Maiko offer seasonal menu, and always come up with new items on the menu. Maiko is located on Saba Road near Buswell Street in Richmond.

Other Matcha Desserts

• Nana’s Green Tea (4.5 Stars)
• Tsujiri (2.5 Stars)

Humble Storefront

Maiko’s has an unpretentious storefront almost to the point of self deprecating. The green signage reminds me of a Chinese bakery. I did not realize this is a matcha dessert place until I saw the small poster in front.

Gold foil wrapped parfait

Maiko Premium Matcha Café also offer Shogun parfait that comes with gold foil wrapping soft served ice cream. It is too gimmicky for me so we didn’t order it.

The interior looks cozy

Maiko has 2 tables with seats, and the rest of the seating areas are benches only. The interior has wood and light brown colored floor which feels quite cozy.

Cashier with a chalkboard menu

The front counter looks very clean and it has three chalkboards at the back. Staff uses different colored chalk to illustrate new items. You can see different typography that feels very organic. These graphics change quite often as they come up with new items for the store.

Stamp card for customer retention

The stamp card offers 1 stamp per every $5 spent (actually between $5 to $9.99). For every 10 ($50 – $99.90) stamps you can exchange for one soft-serve ice cream. Every 20 ($100 – $199.80) stamps get you a Maiko special. The stamp card expires in 1 year.

Maiko Special, Matcha soft-serve

The parfait is called “special” at Maiko. They come with soft-serve ice cream, hard ice cream, shiratama, azuki bean paste, matcha sponge cake, corn flakes, and agar with brown sugar. You have a choice for the soft-serve ice cream flavour between matcha, vanilla, or twist.

There are matcha powder on top of the soft-serve ice cream. I don’t like the way they start to lose their structure before getting to my hand. It looks a little loopy. Fortunately, it has a deep and rich matcha flavour. The shiratama is chewy, which is associated with its warm temperature. Matcha sponge cake has an underlining honey taste, but it feels like filler in the parfait. Azuki bean paste was very sweet and goes well with the sponge cake. 

Not a responsible way of using wood

It is admirable that Maiko is providing wooden spoon for their customers. I don’t think this is a smart move because wood drains moisture from our tongue which affects sense of texture in our mouth. This affects dining experience.

Poorly layered parfait

The parfait at Maiko is poorly layered. The quantity of ice cream seems to be on par with Nana’s Green Tea and Tsujiri but they are all concentrated on top. After the cornflakes layer, there’s only the agar with brown sugar left. This is the insulation/filler layer. There was really not much motivation for me to continue eating.

604 Food Critic Assessment

I was very excited to see another premium matcha themed Japanese dessert franchise opening up in metro Vancouver. The quality and pricing are both standing in the mid range of the parfait places we have tried. Loopy soft-served ice cream is a sign of poor quality for me. Poorly layered parfait and filler toppings also forced them down the ranking ladder. The parfait here is $13.50 after tax, which is on part to Tsujiri‘s $14 parfait with much higher quality topping. The parfait here is still a good dessert. It’s just not worth it when compared with other Japanese matcha dessert locations.

Menu

• 

How to get in touch

• Phone: (604) 285-0013
• Address: #199 – 8279 Saba Rd, Richmond
• Hours: 1:30 pm – 9:30 pm, Friday & Saturday 1:30 pm – 10:00 pm, Closed Monday